Early Medieval Wooden 'Horns'

Medium Ævum, 2021

References to horn calls, and instructions on when and how to sound them, occur in all medieval English hunting treatises, including William Twiti's The Art of Hunting and its later derivative The Craft of Venery, 1 Edward of York's The Master of Game, 2 the verse Boke of Huntyng found in The Boke of St Albans, 3 and The Tretyse off Huntyng. 4 As Twiti declares, blowing the horn correctly is essential to the hunt, as it allows that 'vche mon þat is about þe þat knowes of venre may know in which poynt þou art by þo dint of þi horne'. 5 Horn calls are likewise a common feature of literary depictions of hunting, as when Chaucer has a 'mayster-hunte' signalling the start of Octovyen's hunt in The Book of the Duchess by blowing 'thre mot / At the uncouplynge of hys houndes'. 6 And for Malory, Sir Tristram's accomplishments include the invention of all the horn calls used in hunting, including 'all the blastis that longed to all maner of game: fyrste to the uncoupelynge, to the sekynge, to the fyndynge, to the rechace, to the flyght, to the deth, and to strake'. 7 Self-contained works on horn-blowing are not, however, well known prior to the sixteenth century; indeed, the only self-contained Middle English treatise on the topic of which I am aware is at once very short and very rare, occurring in only a single manuscript. As if to confirm the singularity of this item, George Keiser's catalogue of Works of Science and Information (Volume 10 of A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500) makes no mention of instructions on horn-blowing as a genre meriting independent classification. 8 This article describes and presents an edited version of the short treatise mentioned above. As matters stand, this work exists outside all scholarly frames of reference; its origins and textual relationships are unknown; and there is currently no way of mapping it against any other comparable item. It is known to occur only in British Library, Royal MS 17 D IV, fols 86 r-v , where it is introduced by the title How the hunter shal blow aftir the cawse requireth.

2006

In Europe a number of finds of a specific type of cast bronze horns is known. The tube of this type of horn is straight and slightly conical, ending in a flaring bell, that is upturned in an angle to the tube. The length varies between 63 and 109 cm. Best known are the so-called Saalburg and Rüsselsheim lituus (both from Germany) and the Malbork lituus (from Poland), all three found in rivers, without context. In literature these are named litui and considered to be of Roman provenance. Are these cast bronze horns Celtic or Roman military instruments, perhaps lost in battle or thrown into the river as offerings? Our search for parallels resulted up to now in a total of 22 specimens, both complete as well as fragmentary, from all over Europe. Most of them came to light in an archaeological context, several others have been preserved above ground. Summarizing the finds presented here, we find that not one of these horns has been found in a Roman context. The interpretation as a Roman military instrument was founded on three horns found without any context, while the interpretation of these three as a Celtic bugle was founded on one Roman relief only. Expanding the corpus of ban horns up to 22 items (up to now) brought to light so many connections to a medieval origin, by find context, written sources and iconography, that we can state that ban horns are no Celtic bugles or Roman signaling horns, but medieval bronze horns. Their interest for cultural history lies in illustrating how civic and judicial power were expressed in the Middle Ages. As to organology, ban horns are an important source of knowledge about medieval mouthpieces, and hence of interest for our understanding of medieval playing techniques.

Britannia Monastica 17, Mélanges Offerts au professeur Bernard Merdrignac, 2013

A fascinating aspect of texts written on Old Irish (c. 600-900) and Middle Irish (c. 900-1200) is that items described there have been shown to match objects known from the archaeological record. This paper discusses a passage from the Old Irish saga Táin Bó Fraích, which describes stringed instruments, probably lyres rather than harps. Their decoration, which matches that found on objects roughly contemporary with the language of the text, is described in exceptional detail.

Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, 2022

The working of horns was a trade practiced in some English towns during the late medieval period, although published evidence comes chiefly from a small number of larger towns and cities such as York, Norwich and London. Few certain sites of the industry have been identified and consequently medieval horn working is little understood. Whilst there is only scarce documentary evidence for this industry in Nottingham, an archaeological excavation at Goose Gate in 1976 revealed a horn working site dating to the second half of the 15th century or the early 16th century, which contributes towards a better understanding of this industry. This discussion of the Goose Gate excavation is focused on the form and dating of the relevant structures on the site, but it does not include detailed specialist osteological analysis of the faunal remains.

Early music, 2018

in: Early music (Oxford 2018)

A review of the significance of the horn in prehistoric cultures

The Antiquaries Journal, 1989

Horns were often preserved not for their aesthetic qualities but for their significance as symbols of either office or tenure. This article discusses horns associated with forests and shows how their symbolic interest led to their preservation and study by antiquaries.

Exerpts from music in the Horn, a book published in Sweden, 1987

The Celtic Lyre, 2012

This is a completely new setting for "The Celtic Lyre." The Preface contains information that suggests that Gaelic music is based on a triplet rhythmic pattern and whose pitches are determined by the natural scale (harmonic series).